Number From Area Included On Missing Lists; Safety of Some Subsequently reported for duty
“Missing in action.”
Official notifications from the war and navy departments, bearing this saddening information about a loved one, have come to a number of homes in this area since the Pearl Harbor attack back in the waning days of 1941.
For some relatives, this opening sentence was followed by happier information in the course of time. For others, where no further details have been received, only the hope will come, revealing the safety of a loved one.
For, in a number of cases, some of the men who were reported as missing in action were later reported to have rejoined their combat units, or rescued by comrades. Others, subsequent messages related, were being held prisoners by enemy countries and have communicated with relatives.
Others, about whom their commanders have had no additional information to relate, have, after an interval, been declared officially to have been killed in action.
And, for the parents and relatives of some, the suspense of waiting has continued month after month, as they clung to the hope that no news may be good news and that some day, soon if possible, a message may clear, reporting that the absent member is alive and well.
From official lists issued at intervals, augmented in instances by information obtained from relatives and friends, the following information relative to those from this area who have been reported missing in action was obtained.
First Lt. Donald Rininsland, pilot in the U. S. Army air force, was reported missing in action in the Southwest Pacific area since Feb. 12, according to official word received by his mother, Mrs. H. A. Rininsland, 511 ½ Sycamore street, March 3.
Lt. Rininsland began his flight training here as a student in the CPT program. He enlisted in the air corps in January, 1941, and was ordered to active duty Sept. 24, 1941. He took his primary and preflight training at Cal Aero, Ontario, Calif., and was commissioned a second lieutenant at Victorville, Calif., in April, 1942. Lt. Rininsland, chief pilot of his plane, left for foreign duty in September, 1942. He was advanced to a first lieutenant while in Australia.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, December 30, 1943 (photo included)
LIST OF MISSING IN ACTION GREW IN 1944
Among those from this area who have been listed as missing in action in official dispatches to next of kin, and upon casualty lists of the armed services, are:
FIRST LT. DONALD RININSLAND—A pilot with the U. S. Army air force, First Lt. Donald Rininsland was reported as missing in action since Feb. 12, 1943. He enlisted in January of 1941, and was ordered to active duty on Sept. 24, 1941. He is the son of Capt. H. A. Rininsland, Fort Benning, Ga., and Mrs. Rininsland, 511 ½ Sycamore street.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, Friday, December 29, 1944
1st Lt. Donald Anthony Rininsland was born Oct. 10, 1919 to Herbert A. and Ruth E. Martin Rininsland. He died Apr. 6, 1943 and is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing - Army in Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Taguig City, Philippines.
Source: ancestry.com
